Calm before
by Kkas
Summary: "You may be silent sometimes, even to me, but not cold. Never cold, you beautiful oaf." Rima reflects on the beauty of a storm, and is joined by her dearest friend of all. RimaXShiki Oneshot


_**Hi Vampire Knight people… :) Cloud here…Do you know me? Probably not. Unless you read Naruto, or something…. I wrote this about 3 years ago…But I never put it up. It came up in conversation earlier today, and my friend begged me to put it up, so here we are. I hope you like my very, very old Fanfiction….I think I wrote this on my old account, as it goes…But hey, its proof I'm still alive?**_

_**Summary: "You may be silent sometimes, even to me, but not cold. Never cold, you beautiful oaf." Rima reflects on the beauty of a storm, and is joined by her dearest friend of all. RimaXShiki**_

_**Please enjoy**_

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><p>Soothing, is the word she would have used to describe it, despite her un-relenting shivering and twitching as she watched the show with her usual morbid fascination the night that unravelled before her with what some would deem harsh weather.<p>

The spirals of celestial precipitation cycling in relentless torrents that beat upon the glazed window panels at the hours of night were beautiful. And it could only mean that a storm was coming. Excellent. Already everything she could see with her heightened senses was submerged in wetness, and she couldn't help but wish, if only for a moment, that she could be those blades of grass, frolicking and tickling the air with glee as it drank in the full extent of the glacial, cleansing water, or the withered fence in the close meadow, leaning unceremoniously towards one direction more than the other, as though it was personally raising it's face to the clouds in welcome of what was about to come. She almost wished that she could be they, and they were the Vampire locked up inside as she ogled from afar, what seemed almost picturesque to her eyes.

With her ears, so sensitive, she could hear the wisps of anxious wind whispering at her their need of her presence, vibrating ever so softly through the glass-panels, before hissing in frustration of never being answered, never feeling fulfilled without the presence of Rima Touya.

With her tongue, she tasted the delicately interlacing flavours of pre-morning dew, mingling in with the night's storm and leaving an aroma very similar to soil, or fresh-cut grass, mixed with damp gravel. Mud hacked messily down the sides of the fence and through the jade blades with single-file streams of russet, yet again making her envious of never being able to listen to the wind. Never listening, the thing that help preserve the wonderful atmosphere of a storm, when the calm before was gone.

The rain poured down more-roughly, demanding to be acknowledged, as the clouds over-head blackened and multiplied. She had to fight very hard to restrain her lip muscles from turning up into a full-blown child-like smile of absolute enthralment and wonder. That was reserved for one, and the storm was not that one.

Instead, she pressed her slender porcelain nose up against the thick glass, and craned her cerulean eyes upwards to pay closer interest to the hazy ebony vapours of darkness against the blackish-blue milieu of the night. They rolled closer to her, one last gentle invitation, before the second part of her near-perfect evening commenced.

The gentle tempest, un-vanquished before that moment, was abruptly disturb by an underscored grumble, while the clouds loomed further still. If Rima used her imagination, she could truly see the point of darkness from where the cloud shadowed everything and devoured any light in the already black night, like the vacuity of space.

From absolutely no place other than the inky sky, came the first strike; the jagged bolts of pure energy that struck the ground in almost invisible strikes. It was like watching burning magnesium: impossible to possibly capture the true extent of the amazing brightness, but still pleasure swelling inside her stomach that she was at least able to understand some of the brightness, to have it explained. Another struck in seemingly the exact same place, though it was probably unfeasible that it could have struck in the same place more than once. Her friends probably thought her infatuation with lightning and rain was illogical, for she was capable of generating it all by herself, though hers was electric blue, not at all pretty, and mute. But no; the white radiance dazzled her, the way a strobe would captivate an infant, and she held no humility in that fact, for she thought it made her able to see the beauty others thought her incapable of seeing, through her mask of stolidity.

All this forever enchanted her, kept her smiling from deep within herself. A boring day would submerge them from their hiding place, and Rima would wait patiently for her storm, because it was her promising release from her tight reigns. She felt electric inside her, something she lacked usually. It would affect you too, if it was almost impossible to get anything to interest you.

Unfortunately, the soft grumbling grew with the delightful tempest and soon with each fleck of pleasing light, came a vicious bass growl of offending sound, which she could feel travel down her spine, leaving the electricity to waver, shiver, and increase until it blew her senses like an over-powered light bulb. Her eyes died back to their usual murky blue, while she recoiled from the glass and the silently screaming droplets against the window in a startled flinch. She covered her ears, still hearing over and over again in her head the loud noise that tainted her would-be perfect storm. The calmness had left her, and the sight outside, as usual, like an intrusive weed coiling around the beautiful vibrant, flowering plants and stifling their exquisiteness, and existence, killing them slowly with their constricting grasp.

Still, besides her quiet cursing for the noise to yield as it drowned out her previous happiness, the thunder did not stop, nor did the lighting and the now howling rain. The workings of a storm so comforting, yet then so unsettling, had once again loomed over Rima's head and won. And once again, she could push no further into the barrier of understanding why the storm must make her smile and cry inside all at the same time. It was an enigma.

But unlike her authentic smiles, these feelings sometimes ghosted over to another, probably unaware of the way he made her feel. He'd met her when they were simply children, and they'd never parted since, their dry, yet full of mystery personalities fitting together like corresponding pieces of the puzzle necessary for their completion. Her smiles would only be for him, calm, gentle, and humorous, always awakening not the electric within her, but a whole canyon full of butterflies, maybe. Regardless, the calm soothed her, just as the quiet before a storm would. She knew him as well as he knew himself, or how she knew herself, and in return, he knew her how she knew herself, or how he knew himself. What was his was hers and likewise and they'd never questioned it. But the part that frightened and took the butterflies away from her and replaced them with pain was the unfamiliarity she had been feeling for a while. Not long after they entered the academy, which they had left quite a long time ago now, in their quest to find Takuma and then reunite with Kaname and the others, in fact. She could never leave his side, even if he asked her to, or if he was acting as a host for his evil father. All she wished for was to see him use his reserved smiles in her presence, and give him what she saw in the calm before the gale.

She couldn't see how their relationship had been so simple now, though, and that frightened her just as much as any clap of thunder ever could, that the simplicity they'd felt for each other ever since the moment they were introduced melted, just like the delicious sins, often guilty, that the rain carried away. Inside her mind, she could see herself clawing at it, desperate to keep it and him beside her, so she could stay by his side and have things be simple, the way they were, and have him soothe her, when the rain and lightning could not.

How she detested the thunder, the crude, loud, intrusive sound.

"_Senri_..."She whispered miserably through another shiver, bringing her royal-blue shawl closer around her as she pressed her forehead up more roughly against the glass, letting the cool condensation chill her suddenly feverish face. Another peal of thunder split, and her body convulsed with fear yet again. She cursed. At this rate, she would wake the boys up. She didn't want that.

"Rima?"A quiet voice murmured from right behind her. She could feel the pressure of somebody's chin against her shoulder, and she spun around to face the trespasser with a startled expression, when her eyes met the deep, ice-blue ones she craved for.

Swiftly, nothing seemed so loud. "Shiki," She answered, her face composed and deadpan as she stared at him. In only a few hours, the sun would be rising, and she hadn't seen much of the others already, assuming that they'd all retired early, as they were leaving the next night. He did not answer, but continued to stare at her, their eyes locked in an unvoiced battle to keep their eyes in the longest. Shiki, who had blinked not a heartbeat after Rima, approached her slowly, before seating himself beside her on the cushioned bay-window, and watching the weather, unruffled, just as she had before the thunder had brought on a muse she'd rather not have been subjected to. There he sat, as indifferent as ever, his eyes tracing the raindrops that cascaded down the lucid material effortlessly without any sign of amusement. It was almost like he was humouring her.

"Shiki," She called again, softly, much more cautious then her usual effortless drawl. But he was here for a reason; she deliberated within her moment of silence. She'd been quiet, sure to keep her breathing even and composed. Maybe he was just attuned to her, as she was him, having tasted each other's blood on many occasions. He looked at her, his eyes considerably less bored than they had been on his last fix. She could almost see shards of crystal swimming in those eyes, bright with knowledge and deep with the filling that was the shell Senri showed to others. She knew him enough to know that there was something beneath his silence. She wasn't sure what, though, and that was what bothered her the most. Could he see through her the way she wished she could see through him?

She opened her mouth a fraction, just enough distance between her two full lips to be able to hear coherent sounds exiting them that sounded like mumbled words. Before she could share was on her mind, there was a tiny box between them, wielded by Shiki. He popped the lid, tearing the top of the packed off methodically between his fingers, before clutching at the biscuit end of their secret little haven.

"Pocky?" She questioned, opening her mouth that little bit wider so he could fit the chocolaty end between her lips. Unable to resist giving him his feed, she lifted a second chocolaty stick from the box and jabbed at his lips once, before withdrawing slightly. His teeth latched onto the chocolate as she watched, momentarily lost in the rich, chocolaty biscuit goodness that hit the back of her tongue. But she doubted somehow that she could be as beautiful as Shiki when he took one between his lips and chewed slowly, until he got to the biscuit end. Both plunged their hands back in for a second helping, feeding themselves this time, though yet again locked in a conflict of gaze. Still he'd said nothing of his presence to her. She usually didn't question it. They were each other's shadow, and if they made nothing of it, nobody else did either. But now, she'd decided, she'd like to end the boredom, and try her hand at breaking another of his barriers.

She would not let him push her back, as she did the storm.

"Are you awake?" She asked, aware of the sun, gradually slicing through the sky from where she stood. She had the odd urge to yawn, but restrained it, for him.

He shook his head gently, from left to right once, though a little yawn that broke through his lips betrayed him. His elbow rest on his raised knee, and his chin was supported by the back of his knuckles, as usual. His eyes ghosted over Rima apathetically, also behaving normally. He didn't feel normal, really. He could sense the tension in her shoulders, and felt like massaging it from where she lay.

"Ne, does Shiki want to sleep?" She asked again, untying her dark ribbons from her locks and allowing her strawberry blond tresses to fall with grace around her shoulders.

Senri shook his head; his eyebrows furrowed slightly, though his eyes never changing. "No. It's still raining." He murmured.

He knew about her phobia of thunder. He knew everything about her, almost. Only it wasn't really just thunder, it was noise. Not any noise, just blasting, fast and sudden noise she feared, which was probably partially a reason why she seemed to gravitate to Shiki so readily. He could calm her, just by the extent of his silence, something which she admired in him over and over again, him being there, and her needing to say nothing. They already really knew each other's thoughts entirely.

She pulled another pocky from the fresh packet and nibbled on the end as she thought about reasons why he would deprive himself of sleep he needed to make sure that she was settled and composed enough to admire the last of the storm, when it was once again tranquil. She found she could not, and brought her eyes back to him again, as always. Her orbs of blue belonged to him. As long as Shiki was there, Rima and her eyes would be there too.

"But the thunder-"She didn't get a chance to complete the sentence before the thunder rumbled from the retreating clouds yet once more. She bristled, the grip on her shawl becoming even tighter as her head whipped round in anxiety to spare the window a glance. Shiki, rolling his eyes at her, pulled her into his chest very gently, tucking her head underneath his chin. He was so much larger than her, his entire form over-lapping hers, as she fit perfectly into the crook of his neck. She couldn't believe how unbelievably sweet a person's skin could smell, so lusciously aberrant, that she would never come as close to Shiki without at least one of them feeding. For now though, she just wanted to drink in his scent, and feel his warm embrace, growing tired in his strong, ropy arms. She yawned, running her nose happily down the side of his neck as she inhaled him. Her anxieties seemed silly now, as he positioned himself in the corner of the window. She turned to watch the rain with him, as it gradually left them, dissipating with brightening light. Shiki held her, neither saying a word, just happy to be with one another. The sun had risen now, and Shiki was incredibly somnolent. The sight of Rima's melted eyes jolted him back to awareness though. She was smiling through them, he could see, truly happy as she looked into his irises with just as much admiration as he gave her.

"Senri, thank you..." She said, inhaling again. This time, she didn't make such a good job of hiding it. Of course, he knew from the moment he'd tucked her into him that she was resisting thirst, but now even Yuuki would be able to see that she wanted his blood very much in that moment. It was so rare that she ever got to taste his blood, because he wished to be careful with how he tread around her for obvious reasons. But now, watching her thick lashes fall lightly over her eyes in an attempt to both shield her eyes from the sun and gaze at him, he was sure he was ready. He could see that she coveted more than just his blood, and the feeling between them was exceptionally mutual. He lidded his eyes, exposing his neck slightly, revelling in the sound of her sharp, though nonetheless quiet intake of breath. The pack of pocky fell from his fingertips and onto the floor as he took in the glowing redness of Rima's eyes. Exposing her fangs with a wide yawn, she bit down on his neck after running her tongue up it tenderly. He was moist, and tasted just as good as he smelled, dare she say it, better than pocky. But more importantly, within the thick comfort of his blood, she could taste his hesitance, and feel the bout of affection behind it that she wished so hard to understand. Memories showered her mind blissfully, and she could see herself unmistakably, glancing at the moon from the classroom, eating her pocky thoughtfully through the filter of his precious crystal gaze. She could sense adoration and content, reliving their childhood together, and the first time he tasted her own blood, she could experience the electric thrill that warmed his insides as he saw her memories.

His blood ran down his neck and her lips, but neither bothered to save the liquid, both too tightly embraced and savouring the moment to consider much more than each other. She'd rather not have, if she had the choice, but she didn't want to drain Shiki dry, so she pulled back, running her tongue across the stray droplets, up to where the two holes in his neck resided. Her saliva sealed them, preventing bleeding, even though they were still visible.

Her irises, wide with happiness, even though her mouth was not, took him in. He looked more tired than before, seemingly resting up against the wall for comfort even more than before. Unable to prevent herself from doing so, she massaged the plains of his face, his cheeks smooth like silk and warm like his blood beneath her fingertips. Could she really have felt his soul, through the blood in which she ingested? Was it possible for one to be so sure of someone else that they doubted themselves?

"Can you taste it, Rima?" he asked softly, his arms restricting around her waist as though he were prepared to catch her should she run away.

In return, she blinked, nodding slowly as she bent to her left to lift the pocky from the floor to stuff another of the sticks in his mouth. His hands and arm reached with her waist, unwilling at this point to leave their position for the tiniest portion of time imaginable. She turned slightly, her lips curled up slightly in raw pleasure. She brought her face closer to his, their noses touching in twin paleness as her eyes became half-lidded again.

"I'm no saint..." She supplied, her irises fully sheathed from behind her lids.

Shiki's lips twitched.

But then she opened her eyes and retracted herself from Shiki, bringing his hands from around her backside to place against her face. She leaned reflexively into the soft, warmness, purring with joy at the electrified butterflies that churned in her stomach, once again. To flavour such a thing from Shiki was magical, a blessing she thought she'd never see a vampire be given. And yet, not only had such a blessing happened in her lifetime, but it had happened to none other than her. And he sat right in her arms, the ice breaking from his eyes of diamond for the first time in decades. His eyebrows furrowed, and his irises seemed troubled, and needy, as though he was concerned that what she had sampled of a feeling him may repulse her. In reality, Rima was absolutely lost for words. The staggering volumes of pain she could see within the twin lakes were wrenching her heart out. Who knew that he was capable of such an expression? His grimace may have been painful, but still, he was beautiful, his reddish-brown hair flicking out in-between his eyes and curling around his face as his posture sunk slightly, his hands still framing Rima's cheeks. His eyes were glistening, his pupils shuddering as he took Rima's stoic gaze in with a stifling look of pure and absolute poignancy. She was almost positive he was about to cry. Rima, slowly, so as to not frighten him, brought her hands away from his face very gently, slightly off-put by the way he retracted his hands from her like she was fire, but continued until they reached the desired goal of his beautiful face.

And then he was not the only one with rebellious liquid racing down his cheeks.

"Senri..." She said simply in a trembling whisper. She brought her face into the crook of his neck again, desperate to just feel, which she usually refrained from doing. Shaking with sobs, she could hear slight sniffs coming from Senri too, even though he didn't quite subject himself to weeping as she was. His reddish tresses bled into her orange ones, giving birth to the most unusual shade of auburn. His hands rest upon her shoulders as he tried to force her back, but Rima would have none of it. She held him around the neck so tightly it was a wonder she didn't choke him. She would not let him be the only one to have each and every wall collapse.

Eventually, her sobs subsided, and she just shivered in his arms for a time none of them could measure. During her desperate cling, his arm had returned to her waist, one large hand holding the back of her head, fingers tangled in her locks, as he kept her head where it was. When Rima opened her eyes, she was close enough so that her eyelashes tickled his neck some more.

"Sorry." He said hoarsely, hesitating to add more. He thought better of it, however, and turned his head off to the side for a moment, his mouth curled into his usual frown. "Offering my blood. Unforgivable."

"No." Rima disagreed, once again yawning as the sun glared at her hatefully through the windows. She could almost hear it hissing at her what was still churning her gut inside. _You made Senri cry...Evil, hateful person... _"I wanted to know what lies beneath the glass of your gaze." She said truthfully, before deciding that sounded just as hateful as her conscience reprimanded her for being.

"You... Believe me cold?"He replied near-inaudibly, incapable of saying anything past that volume.

Rima revised, shaking her head slightly. To soothe him, she began to trace light patterns of comfort on his cheek, down his jaw, to his neck. "No. You may be silent sometimes, even to me, but not cold. Never cold, you beautiful oaf."

"...What?" He asked, anxious to have him say those words again, so gently. _Beautiful oaf_. The words rang inside his head as clear as the beautiful chiming that was her subtle, amazing voice.

Down to the last two, she shoved a pocky, chocolate side first, in his mouth tenderly, and bit the biscuit end down, freezing millimetres short of his lips. She hesitated, before chewing whatever hung from his mouth. When both felt the silky softness of one another against each other's lips, their eyes widened in shock. Stunned further still, Shiki watched in confusion, though gratification while she made short work of the pocky _behind_ his lips. Procrastinating, she ever so slowly pulled her tongue back to her own mouth, her lips savouring the flavour of pocky, incrusted with Shiki's taste. Could that be better than his blood? She wondered hazily, past caring at the moment. Still, her eyes were only for Shiki, whose own had doubled in their usual size until she was sure they'd been wrenched open with invisible toothpicks.

"You misunderstand. I return the feeling." She said in her usual way. To prove a point, she jerked her chin upwards, until her throat was fully exposed towards a suddenly ravenous Vampire. "Bite, if that is needed to convince you."

"Rima.-"He began smoothly.

"Bite." She said firmly, her cool eyes never wavering. She pulled the blue fabric yet further away from her neck, tucking any stray hair to the opposing side of her shoulder to entice him further. Landing her goal, Shiki's eyes smouldered an undeniable red that bore into her throat. She imagined him, so tempted in both ways, and able to see the surge of blood pulsing beneath the membrane of her skin. To seal the deal, she brought the tip of her own index finger down to her neck and created the tiniest incision, blood dribbling down the side of her pale neck in contrast ever so sinfully. She feigned watching her finger broodingly, before she brought it into her mouth, her gaze returning to Shiki. The blood spilled now, almost reaching her immaculate clothes.

Unable to allow wasting an ounce of her delectable blood, he pulled his tongue upwards in the opposite direction, licking cleanly upwards until he reached Rima's cut. Sealing it with a kiss, he pulled his teeth back and bit into Rima, just as she had for him only moments before. Moaning, he pulled her closer, pleased when she responded by pushing his face deeper into his neck as she listened to his thirsty gulps. He was overcome with a stifling warmth that filled his veins, total happiness at his own presence assaulting him like a giant hug from his Rima, or his own feeling when he felt her smiling at him from the bottom of her heart, the only places their smiles could come from, in all truth. Liberating excitement that he was loved and then crushing happiness that he had finally touched his heart.

All in her blood.

He pulled back, sealing the wound, but not fully releasing the tiny vampire. He gazed, unsmiling at her, the sun beginning to irritate him more than she could imagine. She scowled at the window too, before retreating to the corner of the room for a moment to retrieve her lilac parasol from her bed. Despite the enormous bad luck she was sure she was bringing, (_Did the parasol count as a part of the umbrella family?_)She opened it roughly in the direction of the offending window; her disgruntled expression subsiding as Shiki once again flooded her eyesight. He hadn't moved once, since she left him to get the parasol. Once her hands were free, he gripped her wrists tightly, his head bowed over them as though he was in prayer. She looked at him anxiously, wondering suddenly if _her_ blood had offended _him_.

He shook his head, as though expelling a disgusting thought he wished his mind had never errantly unleashed, before speaking, his head still positioned south. "Don't."

"Don't...?" She said in silence, her voice trailing off in wonder and incomprehension. What could he possibly mean?

"_Don't_..._Ever_, leave my side again. Even for a moment." He whispered, shaking his head again. "It hurts."

Beaming softly at him behind a serene expression, she pulled him to her chest to hold in her arms, her fingers tangling in and caressing his auburn tresses as she buried her nose in the silky texture.

"Rima will stay as long as Senri would like." She assured him, and she would. In little to no time, the landscape didn't seem so interesting to Rima, the electricity assaulting her veins without as much as a glance at the damp atmosphere outside of the house. She felt everything she'd felt then, and more. And best of all, the storm much closer to her heart in more ways than one was quiet; he made no sound as he nuzzled closer to her. Just revelled in being there, reluctant to ever leave from the place he laid. His eyelids drooped at the therapeutic sensation of the repeated caress of her fondling with his locks, curling and coiling them around her finger, and he did not re-open them, his breathing steady and even.

"In case you don't get it, I love you too." She promised, her own eyes only at half-capacity. Still, they never left his handsome, appealing face, puckered adorably in sleep, in spite of the tautness of his lower half.

His mouth muscles seized in his slumber, and he smiled a small smile, the half of his mouth squashed against her torso lower than the latter. "Only you."

She bothered not to say another word, just enjoying his presence, as she had implied before. The room was swathed in lilac from where the thin parasol battled against the defiant rays of sunlight, but at least now the sun was comfortable, and Shiki wouldn't get burnt.

Content with this, she allowed herself to slip into the arms of Morpheus, in her pleasant slumber beneath her glowing parasol with her beautiful oaf;

Her soundless storm_._

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><p><em><strong>If you wouldn't mind revie<strong>__**wing….. ^^ Let me know what you thought…**_


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